Tidal Ups MQA Selection - Good for Audiophiles or Just a Gimmick?

[gene]

Tidal’s library of MQA-encoded music has just grown significantly. Millions of new tracks have been added from Warner Music Group’s extensive catalog, giving Tidal the largest selection of MQA music outside of China. But just because it’s MQA, that doesn’t mean it’s sourced from “high-resolution” source material.

By paying great attention to the nature of sound and the way we hear, MQA opens a clear window and delivers all the detail and nuance of the original song. The music industry’s catalogue contains millions of significant performances from the early days of CD where, sometimes, the recording was created in 44.1kHz/16bit and no alternative existed. We are delighted that Warner Music Group is bringing this content to TIDAL.

— Bob Stuart, MQA Founder

Note: These claims are not without controversy as a Youtube channel called GoldenSound published their findings on how MQA affects the integrity of the audio files.

Read: Tidal Adds Millions of MQA Files - Good for Audiophiles or Gimmick?

 

[Trebdp83]

A better solution for increased subscribers would be less MQA, not more tracks. Whatever your feelings about MQA, the fact that it is a propriety process for getting hi-res content that requires not one, but two “unfolding” processes is ridiculous. Apple Music’s hi-res current state is a mess as well though I give both Apple and Tidal credit for available Dolby Atmos tracks. I see Apple getting it’s hands on Tidal at some point. Interesting how Apple allows Atmos tracks to play from Tidal app on the Apple TV 4K. Amazon Music app does not do so. Voting for FLAC and currently use Qobuz for two channel hi-res streams, even if I can’t hear the difference.

 

[cpp]

Just another way to sucker people to buy audio piece of equipment and "special audio files either by download or by streaming.

 

[jcarys]

First off, I am a Tidal subscriber and I've been pleasantly surprised with the quality of many of the Master tracks and Atmos mixes. I guess my biggest question is why is MQA needed in the chain? Yes, provenance is incredibly important - you want to start with the most up-to-date master recording, which was most definitely not true when streaming got started. But that doesn't require MQA, it just requires the label to provide their best version. Modern ADCs and DACs can perform beyond the limit of human hearing, so I'm highly doubtful that "deblurring" something non-specified in the time domain is truly changing the audio in any meaningful way. There is just no magic secret sauce that is needed on top of a well mastered PCM file.

 

[lovinthehd]

Can't imagine why anyone would want MQA at all. Annoying as hell.

 

[Eppie]

I've been following this debate with a lot of interest and have even read some of the papers from the AES and Bob Stuart. The compression technique itself (folding or audio origami) is very interesting and there is sound engineering behind that. It's the deblurring and supposed timing issues that do not have me convinced, along with the insistance on capturing audio well above the hearing range. Those papers use some odd language and are not very clearly written. There also does not appear to be a lot of empirical evidence to show that MQA's modification of digital music actually improves things. We need more than a couple of recording engineers saying that it seems to sound better. It appears that MQA is trying to make this a master recording format, but it alters the signal and I thought the goal was to try and capture the original audio in the most accurate way possible. Then leave it up to the playback equipment to create the most realistic sounding experience. What happens when there are further improvements in the future, but all you have is an MQA recording that's already been modified to some extent? That just doesn't seem like a good idea. With all of the licensing involved this has all the hallmarks of someone's idea to squeeze more money out of music lovers without actually benefiting the average listener.

 

[Sal1950]

MQA is a lossy process no one needs in the chain. For decades the audiophiles dream was to have access to a bit perfect copy of the original master tape. Now that we have it some folks want you to give it away for a lossy compression scheme that's not needed, and to see a little blue light come on with a claim that it then sounds better than the original master that the artists and engineers approved. No thank you Tidal. I'll give my money to any of the other streamers that don't support MQA first.
Friends don't let friends use MQA.

 

[Trell]

This pretty much sums it up:

>>>I’ve also read accusations from Jim Collinson of Linn, that MQA is bad for the recording industry because it creates a monopoly, and is nothing more than “an attempt to control and extract revenue from every part of the supply chain.”<<<

 

[lovinthehd]

Man, if Linn gets upset about audiophilia.....

 

[Trebdp83]

Yikes, as long as MQA is around, Pandora’s s#%ty MP3 service will continue to fly under the radar.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yikes, as long as MQA is around, Pandora’s s#%ty MP3 service will continue to fly under the radar.

Then again Pandora for free ain't bad for what it is....but really not meant to replace your higher-res collection (or services) on the other hand. Still one of the better algorithms compared to the likes of Tidal's

 

[Trebdp83]

Tidal’s MQA is what it is. And, guess what, you can still stream lossless from Tidal and not deal with it. The Tidal app can be set to HI-FI(16/44.1) and Master Quality Audio left off. Should be good news for anybody who thinks anything over 16/44.1 is bulls#%t anyway. Honestly, some guys are gonna cling onto their CD towers full of discs and their milk crates full of LPs until they die and their kids let ‘em go for two bits at a f#%kin’ yard sale.

 

[lovinthehd]

You can also let that bullsh*t flow and get those lights to light up even when you have no idea of the actual provenance of the file.....whether or not you are one of the few that can distinguish otherwise with the "higher res" they market.

 

[Sal1950]

Tidal’s MQA is what it is. And, guess what, you can still stream lossless from Tidal and not deal with it. The Tidal app can be set to HI-FI(16/44.1) and Master Quality Audio left off. Should be good news for anybody who thinks anything over 16/44.1 is bulls#%t anyway. Honestly, some guys are gonna cling onto their CD towers full of discs and their milk crates full of LPs until they die and their kids let ‘em go for two bits at a f#%kin’ yard sale.

Boy is your thinking out in left field. We absolutely want our high rez files, we just don' want them degraded with a lossy compression scheme. If we were happy with lossy, might just as well stick to a free MP3 streamer. And why would anyone pay for Tidal and then shut off high rez when there are half a dozen other streamers that have chosen not to join Bob Stuart's attempt to take over the music distribution industry and will give us undistorted 24/192 bit perfect streaming for the same money? The makes no sense at all.
Just say NO to MQA and boycott Tidal till they drop it.

 

[Trebdp83]

If somebody wants 24/192 and doesn't want to hassle with Tidal and MQA, get Qobuz or another streaming service that do not require hardware that does an MQA unfold. If you don't want MQA and are happy with 16/44.1 and would like to check out atmos tracks BUT do not want to throw any money Apple's way then you might end up with a Nvidia Shield Pro and a Tidal subscription. Amazon's atmos via Echo hardly matters. Tidal's just playing the same game with software that some are playing with hardware. "Sure, you can have it all, as long as you play in our sandbox with our toys." There are options folks, that's all. If you are happy ripping CDs into old Windows PCs, have at it. You think compressed hi resolution files are king, have at 'em. If you think quality matters more than quantity to any outfit streaming music, you are wrong. They are concerned with subscriptions while dealing with bandwidth limitations. Not sure how 24/192 improves the quality of s#%ty source material, though. And don't believe any service that says they are giving you what the artist wants to give you. They are going to give you what the label agreed to give you in a deal with the service. This is the reason there are so many re-recordings out there. Deal can't be struck with label for original version, artist re-records it to make money they weren't getting from original cut and it shows up on various streaming services. Let's hope lossless devotees aren't holding movie material to the same standard as music material where lossy is concerned or it would be a disc only situation going on while boycotting everybody for their lossy DD+ streams. Anyway, find a service you like and enjoy.

 

[Sal1950]

For video, I stick to discs whenever possible. Thank God Redbox made it thru Covid and easy access to BluRay's is still available. They're even test marketing 4k discs in some areas. A damn shame that video streaming down-samples all to what they do, but at this time it's probably necessary until much faster home lines become the norm.

 

[Trell]

For video, I stick to discs whenever possible. Thank God Redbox made it thru Covid and easy access to BluRay's is still available. They're even test marketing 4k discs in some areas. A damn shame that video streaming down-samples all to what they do, but at this time it's probably necessary until much faster home lines become the norm.

Where I live, in Sweden, streaming video has made it impossible to rent Blu-ray movies years ago and buying them has to be done online.

 

[Sal1950]

Where I live, in Sweden, streaming video has made it impossible to rent Blu-ray movies years ago and buying them has to be done online.

That's a shame but I can see the writing on the wall here too. I know there aren't going to be enough like me left sometime in the future to continue to support Redbox. I just hope it's not too soon.

 

[lovinthehd]

Don't have Redbox so still use Netflix DVD service, but the blurays are going down in number compared to dvd (for newer releases). Writing is indeed on the wall....Oppo didn't exit for nothing I think....

 

[Paul Lane]

I‘m just now quitting Tidal although I really love MQA..
The problemo is that Tidal keeps losing and taking down tracks ..
No Pet Shop Boys or Bananarama or Led Zeppelin albums..
I’m moving over to Amazon Music..